Eramet says it obtains lithium from geothermal brine in eastern France

Electricite de Strasbourg SA

11/05/2021 18:47

PARIS, May 11 (Reuters) - Mining group Eramet SA  ERMT.PA 
announced on Tuesday it had extracted lithium from geothermal
salt water in a pilot in eastern France, in a breakthrough it
said could boost European efforts to secure raw materials for
electric vehicles.
    Eramet obtained the lithium from brine at the Rittershoffen
geothermal power plant operated by Electricite de Strasbourg
(ES)  EDSP.PA  near Germany during tests conducted in early
2021, the companies said in a joint statement.
    "This is a world first in the field of lithium," they said.
    The pilot is part of the European Geothermal Lithium Brine
(EuGeLi) project, in which German chemicals group BASF
 BASFn.DE  is also participating. 
    The project aims by the end of this year to have scaled up
extraction to produce lithium carbonate, a component of
lithium-ion batteries, and to be able to assess the economic
potential of geothermal lithium extraction, Eramet and ES said.
    The European Union last year added lithium to its critical
raw materials list as essential for a shift towards electric
vehicles and energy storage.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2G01AY
    The Upper Rhine Valley along the French-German border has
also attracted interest from Germany's power and mining
companies, keen to tap the zone's large estimated geothermal
lithium resources to supply a booming electric-car sector.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2MH06O
    Outside Europe, Canada's Standard Lithium Ltd is testing
lithium extraction from brine that is a byproduct of bromine
production facilities run by Germany's Lanxess  LXSG.DE  in the
U.S. state of Arkansas.
    Eramet said it had adapted a process developed for a lithium
deposit it owns in Argentina to make it suitable for hot brine.
    The mining group suspended its Argentine project a year ago,
citing economic uncertainty linked to the COVID-19 pandemic as
well as instability in Argentina.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2BW27L
    

 (Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Ludwig Burger in
Frankfurt
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
 ((gus.trompiz@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 52 18; Reuters
Messaging: gus.trompiz.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))